I have never owned or made anything for myself in animal print before. In fact it just has not been my thing . When Pretty Grievances challenged us to sew from animal print I could feel my insides protest, but I am glad I said yes. It has actually been fun thinking safari and animals.

I could not find good animal print here in Stavanger, so I had my sister-in-law shop for me in Bergen. She sent it to me by mail. Online the fabric looked like this.

I thought the dark parts were black, so I ordered black fabric to go with it ( turned out they are dark brown).

Me, the wimp, I was going to color block the animal print, so I could soften it.

This is the look I was aiming for (Butterick 5852). I just could not see myself in just animal print. My husband liked this pattern (understandable enough, he is a man :-)).

Still, I ended up making it simple. Just the animal print, nothing else.

Here I am.

While I was sewing I was making “escape plans” for myself. Maybe I could alter it, so my daughter could have it??? I was really a little frightened by the whole thing. When I was finished though I liked it. I wore it to church today. In the future I will use it as a tunic. It is nice and comfortable, a good everyday outfit. I love soft jerseys :-).

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For this project I have used lekala 4136. After discovering that lekala.co has better descriptions of these patterns than other places have, I wanted to try them again. The descriptions are not perfect, but at least you get a sketch of both front and back views. The written descriptions are better, not perfect.

Close ups of details:

Maybe some other person working on this dress would like a close up of how I solved details, here you are:

Before attaching the shoulder straps, I gathered this area with elastic thread.

After sewing the side seams of the front and back pieces together I added the “self belt”. I divided both the self belt and the belt in two halves. Then I sewed the self belt parts on. Then I threaded the belt halves into this casing, gathering them all into the center back seam. This way the belt always stays in place.

Here you can see a close up of both the pocket and front of belt area. I used clear, flat swim suit elastic to help me shape the pocket. After making my center pleat, I zigzagged it arround the pocket. I did not pull the elastic, just let it lay flat, so my fabric did not stretch.

Alas I am happy with this project. Now I have one more “sort of” animal print fabric. I know some might think I am stretching it, but you know, beggars can’t be choosers. It does sort of look like an animal print doesn’t it???

I have plans mixing two patterns into one garment, just wait and see.

I also have a left over dress and a jungle safari hat planned in my head. I will keep you posted :-).

Yes, I really am pleased with the shape of this one. lekala.co has the best descriptions on the patterns. Sewingpatterns.com are cheaper. The plus when you buy from lekala.co is that the patternparts are labeled in english. with sewingpatterns.com many times they are in russian. But this pattern is not hard. :-)